"All The Lights Are Flashing Red" - 2025 Heatwave Drove Temps In Scandinavia North Of Arctic Circle To 86F

The Nordic heatwave that pushed temperatures above 30C (86F) in the Arctic Circle in July was part of a record-breaking year that saw abnormal heat sear more than 95% of Europe, a report has found. Parts of Scandinavia were scorched last summer by 21 days of punishingly hot weather that led to “tropical nights” in typically cool countries such as Norway, Sweden and Finland, according to a scientific report campaigners said showed “all the emergency warning lights are flashing red”.

The scientists found temperatures in Europe have risen by 0.56C per decade since the mid-1990s – faster than any other continent on the planet – due to the blanket of fossil fuel pollution covering the Earth.Annual sea surface temperatures in Europe reached the highest levels recorded, according to the EU’s Copernicus and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), while snow cover fell by 31% and snow mass by 45% from their average over the last few decades. Svalbard, one of the fastest-warming places on the planet, has heated at three to four times the average European rate, the report found.

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The heat melted snow and shrunk glaciers in every region of Europe, the report found, with Iceland witnessing its second-greatest loss of glacier mass on record. Meanwhile, the Greenland ice sheet lost 139 gigatons of ice in 2025 and raised global sea levels by nearly half a millimetre, according to the report.

European waters were the hottest ever seen after the fourth year in a row of broken sea surface temperature records, the scientists found. A record 86% of its ocean experienced “strong” heatwaves at some point in 2025, while 36% experienced “severe” or “extreme” heat.

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/apr/29/nordic-extreme-heat-environment-europe-report